The legal war between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni may finally be winding down, but the invoices are not. In a new filing submitted to a New York federal court this week, the Gossip Girl star is asking a judge to make Baldoni cover more than $8 million in legal fees and expenses she says she incurred defending herself against his failed defamation suit. And buried inside the paperwork is an itemized breakdown of charges that has plenty of people doing a double-take.
Inside Blake Lively’s Staggering $8 Million Legal Bill
According to the filing, Lively’s team is seeking roughly $7.5 million in attorney fees plus another $540,000 in expenses. The total is split between two firms, with about $4.5 million going to Willkie Farr & Gallagher and close to $3 million to Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. Her lead attorney, Michael Gottlieb, noted in a court declaration that he billed her at a “discounted” rate of $2,187 an hour, down from his usual $2,795.
It is the smaller line items that really stand out. The documents list a $155 charge for a single six-minute phone call, more than $800 for a 48-minute strategy call, and nearly $800 for 24 minutes spent sending emails. One eight-hour strategy “summit” reportedly came in at almost $16,000, while a single night at a five-star Manhattan hotel ran about $1,474. Lively’s lawyers argued the bills were the direct result of what they described as Baldoni’s “scorched-earth” tactics, writing that his side could have ended the fight at any point and chosen not to.
The eye-popping total lit up social media, where much of the reaction fixated on the sheer size of the bill rather than the case behind it. “Who won in court? Lawyers they got paid,” one user quipped. Another marveled at the scale of it, writing, “$8M in legal fees is not a bit anymore, it is a whole streaming budget subplot.“
How Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni Got Here
The dispute dates back to December 2024, when Lively sued Baldoni and his Wayfarer Studios, accusing him of sexual harassment on the set of their film It Ends With Us. Baldoni firmly denied the claims and filed a $400 million defamation suit against Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds. A judge later threw out Baldoni’s case, then dismissed Lively’s harassment claims, and the two sides settled in May with no money changing hands.
The judge ruled that Lively could seek to recover the costs of defending against Baldoni’s failed countersuit, citing a California law intended to shield harassment accusers from retaliatory lawsuits. Baldoni’s attorney has downplayed the decision, noting that most of Lively’s original claims were dismissed before the settlement. Baldoni’s team has until mid-July to respond, and the judge still has to sign off on any final figure.
For now, the saga that helped turn It Ends With Us into a $351 million box office hit is still making headlines, this time measured in billable hours.
